CINCINNATI, Ohio — Thursday night in Paycor Stadium, Bengals quarterback Joe Flacco turned back the clock.
And not even as far as his days with the Ravens.
The Flacco that helped the Bengals stun the Steelers, 33-31, looked like the Flacco that helped the Browns make a mad dash into the playoffs in 2023.
However, that version of Flacco was nowhere to be found in Cleveland this season.
Yet, one trade and a four-hour drive down Interstate 71 later, Flacco has injected new life into a Bengals team that following Joe Burrow’s Week 2 turf toe injury had looked outmatched in three consecutive blowout losses to the Vikings, Broncos and Lions.
He finished 31 of 47 passing for 342 yards and three touchdowns. Flacco has five touchdown passes in two games for Cincinnati.
The win also keeps the Bengals in the playoff mix by snapping a four-game losing streak.
So that raises the question: why couldn’t Joe Flacco do this in Cleveland?
Maybe there’s blame to throw at the feet of Browns coach Kevin Stefanski and his scheme.
But I don’t think it’s that simple.
In the NFL, as our film guy Lance Reisland likes to say, it’s about players over plays.
The Bengals have those players, particularly on the perimeter. When you have Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, defenses have to pay full attention every single snap.
That kind of attention creates openings for others and even takes pressure off the offensive line.
The Bengals don’t have a great offensive line, but teams still have to be wary of blitzing them even if they have average QB play because of the threats Chase and Higgins are.
The Browns just don’t have those weapons right now.
Jerry Jeudy, coming off a Pro Bowl season in 2024, has not been nearly that good in 2025. He leads the NFL in drops with eight.
With Cedric Tillman sidelined due to a hamstring injury, the No. 2 receiver is either a Jamari Thrash who has 75 career receiving yards or Isaiah Bond, an undrafted free agent who didn’t join the team until training camp and looks like a rookie with a much steeper learning curve because he came into camp so late.
The Browns do have some promising offensive rookies in Quinshon Judkins and Harold Fannin Jr., who have each played very well.
But even with those two, the Browns don’t have an offensive weapon in the stratosphere of Chase, last season’s receiving Triple Crown winner.
Flacco clearly understands the value of Chase. They connected 16 times for 161 yards and a touchdown in the win on Thursday night.
A player like Higgins, who had six catches for 96 yards, might be a No. 1 receiver on a majority of NFL teams, including the Browns.
That’s the luxury the Bengals have even with the questions they have on the rest of the roster.
Their pass rush was largely ineffective without Trey Hendrickson on Thursday.
Their offensive line has not performed well until Thursday when the Bengals had their first 100-yard rushing game as a team this season.
In the modern NFL, you have to have that threat on the perimeter that makes teams second guess sending those extra defenders.
Flacco didn’t have that luxury in Cleveland.
He does in Cincinnati.
So how can the Browns fix this going forward?
To me, the answer is fairly simple.
They have to invest high-end draft resources on that side of the ball.
In Andrew Berry’s tenure, he has only used two picks in the first two rounds of an NFL draft on offense: Jedrick Wills Jr. in 2020 and Judkins this season.
Fannin (67th overall in 2025) is the earliest he’s taken a pass catcher.
In fact, the last time the Browns drafted a pass catcher in the first round was all the way back in 2017, when they selected David Njoku 29th overall.
They’ve made trades to try and add veterans at the position including Jarvis Landry, Odell Beckham Jr., Amari Cooper and Jeudy.
But in the last decade they’ve never really tried to use the high-end draft resources that most teams do at receiver.
Just look at the Bengals for example.
Chase was the fifth overall pick in 2021, which ironically happened in Cleveland, and Higgins was the 33rd pick in 2020.
While you still have to hit on the picks, it’s worth revisiting a quote from the great Wayne Gretzky (or Michael Scott, if you prefer):
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
As great as Joe Burrow is, any quarterback’s life is easier when he has high-end receivers to throw to.
The quarterback is the most important part of the offense. But no quarterback can do it alone.
That’s why Joe Flacco in Bengals stripes is looking like the Flacco from two years ago.
That’s also why Flacco in brown and orange looked nothing like that quarterback, and why that needs to be a priority going forward.
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